the roughfisher's bounty

Were all you brownliners and roughfishers good little boys and girls? Santa stopped by the Roughfisher Command Post late last night and dropped off a few things. The bounty was plentiful for the Mrs. and junior roughfishers. I managed to stay on good behavior long enough this year so that Santa brought me a gorillapod.



An indispensable tool for any streamside photographer, the gorillapod allows the use of a tree branch or other fixed object to serve as an anchor point for your camera. The rubberized ring & foot grips provide extra gripping power to grapple, for a secure hold. It also functions as a traditional tripod. Santa picked out the SLR version for my Canon Powershot S3 IS, which is designed for cameras weighing up to 800 grams. Several other brownliners I know make use of their gorillapod, and are quite pleased with their results. The best part of the gift, is that the maker of the gorillapod, Joby, participates in one percent for the planet.


Mrs. roughfisher was keen enough to pick out the tool for all backyard smoker enthusiasts, a remote control meat thermometer. This badboy has a range of 100', and will alert the remote unit, equipped with a handy belt clip, when the smoked fish is ready. Nice. This will come in handy if I am busy at the vise or manning the Roughfisher Command Post, and should also reduce the amount of times needed to check on the goods, saving from releasing all the wondrous smoke each time the smoker door is opened.



Santa was good to me. Was he good to you too?

After the spring spawn, fish activity has slowed down a bit. Between work and family life, my opportunities for roughfishing are waning, as is typical for this time of year. Similar to the mid-winter doldrums, trying to stay involved in the sport is always key at this point. Whether it is through fly tying, catching up on some reading, or checking in to see what's happening on my favorite fishing blogs, there's always something out there to pique my interest.

Having a stream run through my backyard is somewhat taunting; I get to look at flowing water all day long and dream of throwing a loop into the slackwater just ahead of the bridge, hoping for something to take my offerings. Unfortunately the stream does not hold much for resident fish after the spring spawning runs. At least not near my house anyway. Typically all I find are young of the year sunfish, crawfish, dragonfly nymphs, the occasional minnow like central mudminnows, and of course, tons of mayfly nymphs. With the diversity of aquatic invertebrates in these waters, there can be some cool hatches to observe, especially with a camera.

Yesterday was an exceptional day for photographing streamside insect life. I got quite a few decent photos of different mayfly species, caddis flies, damsel flies, and dragon flies with my Canon Powershot S3 IS. I love the supermacro setting. You can really get the detail of these bugs, without the need for a couple thousand dollar lens. The setting also works great for photographing tied flies on the vise.

Here are a couple more photos from yesterday to share.

There was as total lunar eclipse over the northwestern hemisphere this evening at about 21:26 CST. I tried to take a few pictures with my Powershot S3 IS but I totally suck taking photos. I just got this camera for my birthday, so I'm learning the new modes that weren't an option on the Powershot S1. I haven't quite got the hang of it yet, and I'm sure if I had a tripod, that three-quarters of the pictures that I took wouldn't have been blurry. Looks like I'll need to invest in a compact tripod...